Never Lie To a Mermaid
by s.halliwell24
Summary: Mix Hermione and Draco with wrapping presents. Strange things happen on Christmas, so strange that they are pulled into another world where they must trust one another if they want to get out alive. DMHG
1. Chapter 1

Ok, well I know I said that I would revise my other story and post that first but this kind of came up and I couldn't put it away. I meant to post it on Christmas but I never got to it so, here it is now. I hope you all like it and review. I'll probably update tomorrow or day after for anyone who wants more:) **  
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**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.**

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It was Christmas Eve at Hogwarts. The day before Christmas was a joyous day for most, at least those who enjoyed holidays and celebrated them regularly. As usual, the grounds were covered with snow forming a perfect white heaven that glistened beautifully when light shone upon it. 

It was around ten o'clock in the night to be exact. Draco Malfoy was sitting in the Heads Common room on a rather uncomfortable sofa, staring at the crackiling fire with a scowl on his face. His mother had not let him come home for Christmas saying that it would be his last Christmas as a "boy". Draco suspected that she was too busy for him but he didn't say a word. All in all, he head no intention of enjoying himself on this holiday.

As usual, loads of presents would be waiting for him in the morning. He would open them all and and thank the people who got them for him whether he liked them or not. The next day, he would throw more than half of them away. Christmas was a routine thing for him. It came, it went, it was nothing big.

This year in particular had been a rather nasty one for him so he did not feel at all in the Christmas spirit. He had gotten the position of Head Boy just as he expected but Hermione Granger had been chosen Head Girl. He knew she was smart. There was no doubt about that but she was the most annoying person he had ever met in his life. There were times when he wanted nothing more than to push her off a cliff. She infuriated him.

Lately, she had become even more infuriating than normal. Draco supposed that it was because of Christmas. Bloody Gryffindors, always so cheerful. It was getting on his last nerve. She would come into the common room humming some odd tune that would mercilessly buzz around in Draco's head for the next day or so until she started humming a new one. He wanted to find a hammer and repeatedly hit his head with it.

The fire in front of him crackled as he continued glaring at it. It was getting smaller but he did not feel like gettin gup to put more logs in it. Draco crossed his arms and looked at the Grandfather clock next to the fireplace. 10:10. One hour and fifty minutes till Christmas. Twenty five hours and fifty minutes till the whole holiday was over. Then there would be six more days till the whole year was over. Draco sneered at the clock and looked back at the fireplace.

He had nothing else to do. Most people had gone home for Christmas. Pansy had to attend her third cousin's wedding, Crabbe and Goyle always went home, Blaise's mother was sick, and Theodore hated staying at Hogwarts. Even Potter and Weasley were gone. Normally they stayed here with Granger. But they had gone off and she had stayed.

Draco heard a creaking noise and turned to see Granger walk through the portrait clutching a bag. Her face was bright from the cold and she was grinning from ear to ear. Oblivious to Draco's glare, she set her bag on the ground and threw herself onto a chair that was in front of a wooden table. She unwrapped her scarf from around her neck and setting it down neatly beside her, began pulling things out of the bag.

She pulled out one large book, a box of chocolates, something that seemed to be a deck of cards, and a few other things.

"A bit late for shopping, isn't it?"

Hermione jumped as she heard his voice. She looked at him with a grin and said, "I had things to buy."

Draco rolled his eyes and turned his head back to the fire. Hermione looked at his head and back at her things. Muttering to herself about bad spirit, she carefully placed the presents back in the bag and walked over to the sofa that Draco was sitting on.

She studied him intently for a few seconds until he said, "Display hours are over, Granger." Draco turned to her with a sneer on his face and said, "If you like my face so much, why don't I give you a picture of it for Christmas. That way you can hang it on your wall and stare at it whenever you need to."

Hermione snorted and said, "You're so full of yourself, Malfoy."

"I prefer the term confident," he muttered.

She looked at him then at the fire. "The fire's going to go out soon." Draco ignored her. "You might want to put another log on it." He ignored her once again. Hermione glared at the unresponsive blond in front of her and said, "You know, staring at the fire isn't going to make it any better."

Draco pulled his eyes away from the fire and looked at her. "How do you know that something's bothering me?"

Hermione shrugged and placed her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "I don't."

Draco rolled his eyes and turned back to the crackling fire. It was hard to keep his attention on though as Hermione was still standing next to him and looking at him. "Is there something you want, Granger?"

Hermione's eyes lit up as she admitted, "Actually, now that you mention it, there is."

Draco looked at her with disgust and said, "Oh?"

"Yes, would you mind helping me wrap presents?" Hermione raced back to her shopping bag and brought it over to him. "As you can see, I have at least ten in here and I'd like to finish them before midnight so that they can get to the people before tomorrow."

Draco sneered at her and said, "I have better things to do than wrap silly gifts that people will eventually get tired of and throw away."

Hermione scowled at him and said, "You're not even doing anything right now."

"Go bother someone else, Granger."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and said, "Like who? Professor Snape? That would be wonderful. Oh hello Professor Snape. Would you mind helping me wrap the presents that I bought for Ron, Harry, Ginny, and a few of my other Gryffindor friends? I'm sure he would love that, Malfoy. I'm sure he would also love the fact that it's ten o'clock in the night and I'm wandering about searching for people to help me wrap presents."

Draco snorted and kept staring at the fire.

Hermione jutted her bottom lip out and sighed. "Look Malfoy, I'm asking you nicely."

Draco turned to her and said, "What's in it for me?"

"What's in it for you?" Hermione thought about it for a moment before replying, "Self fulfillment of course. The joy of Christmas Spirit will flow through you and you will have a lovely Christmas tomorrow."

"That's a lame reward," muttered Draco.

"Come on, Malfoy." Hermione resisted the urge to laugh as she said, "Girls really like a man who can wrap presents."

Draco's looked at the Head Girl and smirked. "Do you like it?"

Hermione's eye widened as she replied, "I don't care...it's just more personal when a person wraps it themselves instead of magically wrapping it."

Draco looked into her large brown eyes for a few seconds before grabbing the bag from her. As she squealed with joy, he muttered, "If anyone sees me doing this, I'll say that you forced me to do it."

Hermione didn't reply but pulled out a roll of wrapping paper that was in the bag. She placed one of the presents on the table and she and Draco began the task of wrapping.


	2. Chapter 2

I am so sorry for not updating sooner. The electricity went out on New Years Eve, which was the day I said I would update and it did not come back till yesterday night. So here's the next chapter and hopefully I will be able to get the next one up before Sunday!

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you do not recognize.**

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At eleven o'clock, the grandfather clock in front of the fireplace began to chime. Draco watched as Hermione put tape on the last present. Once she was done, he surveyed their work. He had to admit, they had done a pretty decent job of it. He hadn't realized that time could go by so fast while doing something as menial as wrapping presents. She had a lot of presents though.

Suddenly, Hermione began putting them all back into her bag. "What are you doing?"

"I have to go up to the owlery. These presents have to get there before tomorrow, remember?"

Draco scowled at her as she put the last present into the bag. It mad him a bit angry. Undeserving people like Potter and Weasley were going to see the presents the next morning and rip open the paper without any regard to the person who had wrapped them. He shook his head as Hermione called his name. "What?"

"I said do you want to come with me to the owlery to send off the presents?" Hermione looked at him questioningly. "It's perfectly fine if you don't want to. I wouldn't expect you to want to come either."

Draco sprung of the couch with a scowl and grabbed the large bas from her hand and stomped out of the common room. Hermione followed him with a smug smile on her face.

Once they reached the owlery, Hermione took the bag from him without and said, "That was rather easy, wasn't it?"

Draco scowled at the girl and snapped, "You weren't the one carry the stupid bag."

"I never asked you to carry the bag in the first place, did I?" Draco glared at the Hermione who proceeded to find a few owls to take her presents.

Attaching the presents to the birds, she whispered to them the places that she wanted all her presents to go. As soon as all the birds were gone, she looked out of the window if the owlery onto the magnificent landscape in front of her. By the moonlight, Hogwarts looked very different. The Forest looked particularly darker than usual and the fields were shining oddly under the moonlight. A faint tinge of smoke was seeping out of the chimney of Hagrid's cabin and Hermione smiled, thinking of the present she had gotten for him.

She turned her head towards the lake. It was nearly frozen. She would go ice skating tomorrow with a few of the other students. A spot on the lake caught her eyes. From what she could see, there appeared to be a hole in the lake. It was probably just water that was not frozen but as Hermione squinted her eyes, she noticed that it was giving off a faint blue light.

"Malfoy." Draco grunted in reply. "Come here a moment, would you?"

Draco grudgingly stepped into place next to her. "What?"

Hermione pointed to the lake and said, "Tell me what you see on the lake."

Draco rolled his eyes and said, "I see nothing except ice and..." Draco leaned forward slightly. "...a hole?"

"Good, I'm not the only one." She swiftly turned on her heel and left the owlery, Draco following her.

"Where are you going?" he shouted. She was quite a bit ahead of him.

"Stop shouting," she hissed. "Do you want to wake the teachers?"

Draco groaned and caught up to her. "Where are you going?"

"To the lake, of course."

"For what?"

"To see what that hole was."

"It's probably just water that hasn't melted. Surely you would have figured that out, Granger."

"I'm not an idiot, Malfoy. Didn't you see? The hole was giving off a blue light. What water do you know that gives off light?"

"It's the lake," muttered Draco. "Who knows what's in there."

"Mermaids," mumbled Hermione.

"What?"

"Nothing." She stopped and faced him. "Look, you don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm perfectly fine with going out there on my own."

"I'm letting you go out there on your own," blurted out Draco, immediately regretting it.

"Why not?" asked Hermione suspiciously.

Draco thought of the first thing that came into his head and said, "If you die, I'll be able to thank the person who killed you."

Hermione scowled at him as he realized how stupid that had sounded. She turned her head and frowned. "Can...Can you hear that?"

Draco looked around and said, "Hear what?"

"That music." Hermione left Draco standing in the middle of the corridor and continued walking.

Draco shook his head and followed her. The funny thing was that she seemed to be getting faster by the second. Draco was sure that she didn't realize it either. He watched as she slipped through the doors to the entrance of the school. He groaned and rubbed his arms muttering that if he was sick the next morning, he would never forgive her. Draco slipped through the entrance doors as well and stopped for Hermione was standing at the top of the steps with her eyes closed. She seemed to be in some sort of trance.

"Granger, what are you-

"Shut up!" she hissed in a harsh tone. Draco looked at her taken aback and wondered what was the matter with her. He looked on with intrigue as she began walking down the steps with her eyes closed. Her head would turn every once in a while as though she was trying to hear something.

Draco followed her unaware of what she was doing. A shivered as a gust of wind brushed past him. For a second, he heard a whisper but as quick as it came, it left.

The two of them stopped in front of the lake. Draco looked at the water in awe as he beheld it. As Hermione had said from the owlery, the water was giving off a bluish glow. Draco felt compelled to touch it for some reason. There was something funny about it though. Something dangerous. Draco blinked and looked down. He jumped back as he saw that if he had taken two more steps, he would have fallen right into the water.

He turned to Hermione who was kneeling on the ground and looking at the water. He watched as she reached a pale hand out to touch the surface. With lightning speed, he went to her and turned her away from it. Hermione blinked and said, "The singing is gone..."

"What singing?" hissed Draco. "Do you realize that if I hadn't gotten you just now, you would have fallen into the lake?" Hermione turned and looked at the water which was a mere foot away from her.

She turned back to Draco and said, "Someone was singing, Malfoy." She looked almost desperate as she told him. She looked back at the water. For a second, something flashed under the surface.

She looked at Draco who was still staring at the water. "Did you see that?"

Draco mutely nodded and said, "Look, I think we should get back inside. I don't want anyone to see me out here with you."

Hermione shook her head and said, "As I said, I didn't ask you to come with me." She leaned towards the water, ignoring everything Draco had just told. The blue light seemed to dance on the surface of the water. It was odd, though. This was the only part of the lake that was still liquid. Hermione reached out to touch the water when out of nowhere, something cold and slimy came out of the water and grasped her hand. Her eyes widened with shock as it yanked her into the water with such force and speed that Draco was not fully able to register what had just happened.

Draco stared at the water, his eyes wide with terror. He didn't know what possessed but, picking up her wand, which was lying carelessly on the ground, he grabbed his own from his robe and dove in right after her.

Had he cared to look up, he would have noticed that the water turned to ice as soon as he had dove in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Good news, next chapter is up, bad news, I have finals next week so I'm not sure when I'll be updating next. Possibly next Friday but I'm not too sure about that.Anyways thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed so far! So, sit back and enjoy...  
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**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you don't recognize.

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Hermione woke up only to have the feeling that something was not quite right. She stretched her arms and yawned. As she yawned, she noticed that bubbles appeared in front of her. She blinked her eyes rapidly and frowned. No normal person yawned bubbles. Malfoy must have done this to her. He probably wanted to get her back for making him wrap presents. It was a dumb trick if she ever saw one.

She put her hands down at her side and instead of feeling her soft bed, she felt stone. Frowning, she looked around and finally noticed that she was in some kind of...cell, for a lack of a better word. She made to stand up but found that something was wrapped around her feet. Whoever had taken her captive was indeed rather stupid. Tying up only her legs and not her arms.

Hermione moved her robes away from her feet and bent down to untie whatever was binding her feet. One look at her legs and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. Her legs had become fins. Mermaid fins.

She calmed herself and took deep breaths, looking waving her hand at the bubbles that appeared in her face.

Suddenly it hit her. She remembered what had happened. She had gone tot he lake with Malfoy when something had pulled her in. She looked around shocked and came to the startling realization that she was breathing under water. She put a hand up to her neck and ran her fingers over it. Sure enough, there were slits at the side of her neck for gills.

Trembling, she brought her hands to her lap and stared at them. With a look of horror upon her face, she lifted her hands up and noticed that she had developed some sort of web in between her fingers. Probably for propelling yourself better, a part of her mind told her. She dropped her hand.

Hermione Granger had become a mermaid. She let out one more ear-piercing scream that echoed throughout the underwater city.

Draco was not in a mood for talking. He had dove in after Hermione and had been attacked by creatures, which he now found were mermaids.

His father had always told him that they were disgusting creatures with the torso of a human and the fins of a fish. That's what they were but they possessed an unnatural beauty that did not go unnoticed by Draco.

They had taken him out easily. After all, it had been him against about ten other mermaids. Mermen, now that Draco thought of it.

He would kill Granger once they got out of here. That is if they ever did get out. They had thrown him in some kind of cell and given him some sort of seafood to eat. Draco ate it without complaining. Merpeople were powerful creatures and you did not want to mess with them.

Immediately after the first bite, he had felt a sharp pain at the side of his neck, in his legs, and in his fingers. He supposed he had blacked out after that for he couldn't remember anything else except waking up to a scream that sounded remarkably like Granger's.

Draco looked down and noticed that his feet were gone. They had been replaced with fins. Fish legs, that's what people would call him if they could see him. His fins were scaly looking and had an odd sort of shine to them. He ran his hands over them only to find that his fins were mildly slimy. Catching a glance of his hands, he saw that they were now webbed.

He groaned and rubbed his neck. He groaned once more as he realized that in addition to having fins, and webbed hands, he had gills.

Draco promptly lay down on the stone floor and willed this to be a dream.

He was woken up by a merman with unruly black hair and gleaming yellow eyes. He was carrying a spear and wore silver armor on his chest. The merman roughly hauled Draco up and took him out of the cell.

"Where are you taking me?"

"You are not to speak unless spoken to, mortal."

Draco scowled at being addressed so but said no more. He looked at the other cells as he passed by. They were all empty. Crime rates must be very low down here, a humorous part of his brain interjected. That part of his mind was immediately silenced by the sensible part which told him that he should be on guard.

They came to a stone door with carvings of horrendous looking creatures engraved on the edges. The guard pushed the door open and Draco's vision was immediately flooded with light. He dropped his head, effectively blocking most of the light that came this way.

"Is he one of them?" came a smooth voice. Draco tried looking up but was once again blinded by light.

"Yes," replied the guard, who bowed deeply.

"Where is the other one?"

"The other mortal will be here shortly," said the guard.

They were probably talking about Hermione. She should be here as well. They wanted her in the first place. Draco supposed he was just a bonus in addition to her. Why would they want her in the first place? It wasn't as though she was something special. Out of the blue, he remembered his father telling him that merpeople loved eating humans.

He heard a door open and glanced sideways and saw two pairs of fins moving towards him. He heard a gasp and one of them fell down next to him. It was Granger. She pushed her self up and turned her head to glare at the guard who had pushed her down but was unable to due to the light.

They both heard a shrill voice followed by something that sounded remarkably like nails running down a chalkboard. Draco winced slightly, willing for it to go away. Though the sound did not go away, the light did. He looked up and saw merpeople flooding in from all parts of the room. He turned his head and saw Hermione looking around with an expression of mixed horror and curiosity etched upon her face.

The shrill sound subsided only to be followed by a rather loud sneeze. Draco looked away from Hermione and his eyes froze. There was a rather large throne in front of him made of bright gold with carvings in it. Sitting on the throne was the most beautiful creature Draco had ever seen. It was a mermaid, no doubt. Her black hair cascaded down her shoulders and nearly touched the ground. Shells were entangled in it and a silver crown was on her head. She had pale white skin that seemed almost translucent. She had strikingly black eyes that seemed to hold an immeasurable amount of power. Draco would have found her irresistible were it not for her nose which was rather red and swollen.

"It's rude to stare, mortal," she rasped, sneezing once more. Draco looked down in shame and chanced a glance at Hermione who was looking the mermaid with awe. The mermaid rubbed her nose and said, "I suppose you both are wondering why you are here." Her voice, despite the fact that she was sick, had a strange sense of power about it.

"Who are you?" asked Hermione, her voice barely above a whisper.

The mermaid glared at Hermione who dropped her head. "Who am I?" The mermaid's black eyes flashed and a guard immediately appeared at her side. She whispered something in his ears, an ugly sneer appearing on her lips. The guard nodded to here and turned to the rest of the room. He opened his mouth nothing but bubble came out. Draco assumed that he must have said something for the merpeople watching fled the room leaving only Draco, Hermione, a few guards, and the mermaid.

She coughed and said, "Much better." She turned back to Hermione and said, "Now, where were we, mortal?" She tapped her fingers on the arm of her chair and continued, "Ah, yes, I remember. The mortal who leads you, what is it you call him?"

"Who leads us?" asked Hermione in confusion.

"Dumbledore," supplied Draco.

The mermaid turned to him and said, "I don't recall asking you to speak." Draco inwardly scowled and looked away as a tinge of pink appeared on his cheeks. She turned back to Hermione and said, "This, Dumbledore, has he not told you of the creatures who live in this lake?"

"He doesn't tell us but people know what's in here." Hermione looked confidently at the queen and said, "I've read a few things about this lake and I-

"Silence," the mermaid hissed. "That man is a pitiful fool, if I ever saw one." She sniffled and looked down at Hermione. "What do they call you, brown haired mortal?"

Hermione's eye widened with surprise as she replied, "Hermione Granger."

"And you, white haired mortal?"

Draco scowled slightly and replied, "Draco Malfoy." He bowed slightly to the mermaid and looked at Hermione with a smirk. She rolled her eyes at him and kept her eyes on the queen. "What do we call you, fair mermaid?"

The mermaid sniffed and cast a disdainful look at Draco. "I am called Gráinne, Queen Gráinne."

"A lovely name for such a lovely-

"Silence, I do not think I asked you to say anything, mortal." She rubbed her head and sneezed once more. "Now, to what I want." She rubbed her nose, which became even redder than before. "The creatures of this lake have always been affected by the mortals who live above. It is one of the consequences of living in such a magically polluted community." As she sneezed once more, Draco resisted the urge to smirk as bubbles flew everywhere.

"In the last one hundred years in particular, it seems that these...effects have been getting worse and worse. Our condition down here, one could say is affected by the emotions you pathetic mortals wield against one another." The guards all chuckled slightly but were silenced by a glare from her. Gráinne leaned forward on her throne and said, "I have been queen of the merpeople for the last four hundred years. In all my years, I have never been as affected as I am now. Would either of you like to tell me why?"

Gráinne's black eye glittered with malice as she regarded the two. When they remained silent she said, "For the past six years, we've been on the receiving end of a rather strong emotion. It happens to be the same one I feel towards the two of you. Hate. Just this year, it's become stronger than ever and I had one of my trusted spies figure out who it has been coming from." She sneered at the witch and wizard and rubbed her nose.

"That would be Malfoy's fault," cut in Hermione.

"What? What do you mean it would be my fault? If I recall, neither of us are particularly friendly with one another."

"Well, do you think this would have ever happened if I weren't a...mudblood?" Hermione spat the word at Draco who rolled his eyes.

'I don't think it would have been any different. Let's see, you are annoying to say the least, a mudblood, you've obviously never heard of getting a hair cut, you're a mudblood, and-

Hermione let out a strangled cry as she swam from her spot on the floor towards Draco. She was stopped, however by one of the guards, who grabbed a hold of her arms.

Queen Gráinne on the other hand seemed as though she was on the verge of having a heart attack. Draco, Hermione, and the guards stared at her with horror as spasms seemed to rip through her body. Without warning, a gigantic sneeze issued from her mouth throwing all of the occupants in the room against the opposite wall. Gráinne leaned back in her throne, her eyes very red.

She took a deep breath and choked out, "Would you both kindly be quiet?" She waved her arm and a guard appeared at her side. She whispered something to him and he nodded. He snapped his fingers and ten mermaids appeared. The bowed to the queen and soon carried her away. Draco and Hermione watched this with mixed emotions.

The guard, whom she had said something to, turned to them and said, "The queen has spoken. You both will stay in the dungeons until your hatred is resolved."

The two looked at him with horror. Neither of them could stand each other's company for more than ten minutes at a time. When they did well, it was a sign that something was wrong.

The mermen guards came up to both of them and bodily picked them up. As they were picked up, Draco shot Hermione a nasty glare, which she replied to by sticking her tongue out. That was followed by a loud sneeze once again. Hermione winced as she heard it and promptly ignored Draco. He scowled at her and looked away.

They left through the doors they came in and were once again plunged into darkness. The guards stopped at a cell and threw Draco in. Despite the fact that they were in water, they managed to throw him with quite a large amount of force. He crashed into the wall. He rolled his eyes as he saw the other guard set Hermione gently down into the cell. Hermione on the other hand scowled at the guard and he promptly slammed the door to the cell in her face. She glared at the two as they swam away.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to Draco and said, "As I said before, this is all your fault."

"What do you mean my fault? As I said before as well-

"Would you mind not talking for a while?" Hermione's eyes flashed as she swam towards him. "I am pretty sure that these merpeople would not hesitate to kill us if we did something that neither of them liked."

"You mean eat us?"

"Eat us?"

Draco smirked at her and said, "My father told me once that a boy in his year fell into the lake and they never saw him again."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "It's called drowning."

"What would you know about that, mudblood?" Draco sneered at her, waiting for an answer.

"Would you just stop? I am not in a mood for this right now. I just wanted to have a peaceful Christmas at Hogwarts and now I'm not going to get one."

Draco watched as she sunk to the floor with a scowl stuck to her face. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her as awful as it was. Neither of them had asked for this to happen. They were just minding their own business when the merpeople had to interrupt them and say that their fighting is causing the queen to become ill.

He looked at Hermione and was amazed to find her asleep on the floor. She looked quite comical actually. Her fins were tucked underneath her in a manner that resembled a horse and the slits in the side of her neck would move every so often.

He rolled his eyes and figuring that he should probably follow her example, curled up and went to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Eh...not exactly the best of chapters but what can I say? My finals just ended and my brain doesn't feel like functioning. On a good note, I did extremely well on my French final...**

**Anyways, thank you soooo much to everyone who reviewed!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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Albus Dumbledore was a very patient man. He took his time in doing what he did because he knew that in the end, what ever he did would be done as it should. His philosophy did not make sense to many of his colleagues but it did not bother him in the least.

Christmas was a wonderful time for him. He would get mounds of presents. Some would say that it was rather juvenile of him to look forward to getting presents but he did not mind.

It amazed him the kind of gifts he received every Christmas. In his opinion, a gift showed how well you knew a person. Judging by the gifts he received, it was safe to say that not many people knew him that well. What he really wanted for Christmas was a good pair of socks. Lemon drops would be nice as well.

Dumbledore patted Fawkes, his phoenix absentmindedly. This year had been quite a good one. Nothing had happened, which was a sign that there would be trouble in the future. Any trouble that had occurred around the school had immediately been put to a stop by the Head Boy and Girl.

He let a small smile cross his face as he thought about them. Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy had been the only two candidates most suitable for the head positions. Yet, they were mortal enemies. He chuckled slightly and held out a lemon drop for Fawkes to eat. Dumbledore knew that Hermione had been at Hogsmeade this night. He had seen her coming in late and found it rather thoughtful of her to spend so much time choosing presents for her friends.

She would not let anything ruin her mood for sure, not even Draco Malfoy. Dumbledore glanced at his fireplace with a relaxed smile. He looked at his clock which read eleven o'clock. So much could happen in an hour. He chuckled slightly and mumbled, "Young love." Pushing himself out of his chair, he patted Fawkes once more and retired to his chambers for a good sleep. He didn't want to miss anything on Christmas morning.

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Deep underneath the frozen waters of the lake, Draco was sleeping peacefully on opposite ends of the cell. Hermione on the other hand was wide awake and staring at Draco with disdain etched all over her face. If it weren't for him, they would have been free from this place. He just had to spark an argument in front of the queen and cause her to have a massive allergy attack. Allergy attack.

She snorted to herself thinking about the absurdity of the whole thing. Never in her life had she ever heard of anything so stupid. Nowhere did it say that merpeople were affected by the emotions of the humans around them.

Hermione let out a sigh as she let the thoughts run through her head. It was indeed a fine way to spend vacation. Everyone back at the castle would probably be so wrapped up in having a good time that no one would notice that she was missing.

She glanced over at Draco's sleeping body and scowled. She would never be able to figure out how to get out of here by herself. She didn't even have her wand.

With a disgruntled look plastered on her face, she managed to swim towards him. It was a bit difficult to stay in one place as she could not stand on her fins. She had to fold them in a certain way so that it would not pain her when they were resting on the ground.

"Malfoy, wake up." Hermione looked down at the blond who was peacefully snoring away. She whacked him with her fins and smirked as he slid into the wall.

Draco groggily looked up and rubbed his head. The first thing he saw was Hermione smirking down at him. He scowled at her and asked, "What do you want, Granger?"

"We can't stay in here forever."

Draco rolled his eyes and muttered, "One of us will inevitably end up dead by the time a day is over."

Hermione looked at him with a strange look on her face and said, "You're probably right..."

"Aren't I always," he muttered.

"Oh, do shut up." Hermione glared at him venomously as he smirked at her. "Look, I don't like this any more than you do but I really want to get back to the castle."

"Good luck with that," replied Draco, sweeping his blond hair out of his eyes.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. He infuriated her quite a bit. She sighed and said, "I, unlike you, actually look forward to Christmas." She placed her hands on her hip and looked down at him.

Draco looked up at her sullenly. She had a point. Even though he did not enjoy the holiday one bit, that didn't mean that he should ruin it for her. As much as he hated her, he did not feel like ruining her mood. Besides, if she was in a bad mood, he would have to put up with it for the rest of the time that they were stuck in here. Now that Draco thought of it, if he didn't help her, she would become so angry at him that their "intense hatred" for one another would grow even bigger causing the queen to keep them in here for an indefinite amount of time. He did not want that. No, he would rather eat flobberworms than spend the rest of his life with Hermione Granger.

He scowled and said, "Fine...I suppose I could help you but I want something in return."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and asked, "What?"

Draco frowned and replied, "Err...when I figure out what, I'll tell you."

She snorted at his reply and sat down a few feet away from him. The only problem was that rather than sitting down, she fell down. "I'll never get used to these," she muttered.

"Then don't stand," snapped Draco, who appeared deep in thought.

Hermione scowled at him before racking her brains for ideas...

* * *

The queen was feeling extremely ill. Her nose was very red contrasting greatly with her pale skin. Gráinne's eyes were swollen and held a look of extreme loathing. The two mortals, whom she had taken from the above world, had asked to see her. It was a rather bold move in her opinion. She had the power to kill them with the point of her finger. Perhaps they had resolved their hatred. She managed to let out a slight chuckle that was followed by a rather loud fit of coughing.

One of her maids rushed over to her and comfortingly patted her back. "Are you alright, your majesty?"

Gráinne waved her hand at the mermaid who bowed her head and swam back to her former position. She knew that the mortals had not resolved their conflicts. Seven years of hatred could not suddenly vanish within a few hours. She was curious as to what they wanted to say though.

A guard with long brown hair entered the room and bowed. "The mortals are here to see you," he said.

"Let them in," she rasped. Her black eyes narrowed as Hermione and Draco swam awkwardly into the room. They reminded her of merbabies who were learning how to swim properly.

"What could possibly be so important," she coughed, "that you have so rudely demanded an audience with me?"

Hermione shot a glance at Draco who did nothing. "We've resolved our...conflicts for now and have agreed to partake in a...truce until we leave Hogwarts."

Gráinne shifted slightly in her bed as she regarded Hermione. "A truce you say?" She raised an eyebrow and burst out laughing. Her laughing soon turned into a row of sneezes. Rubbing her nose, she replied, "A truce is nothing. It does not take away emotions. It merely puts them on hold. They are stored away for later use." She raised her pale hand, which had become rather wrinkled and pointed it at the two.

"When you finally do unleash your emotions, do you think others won't be bothered by it?" The queen sneezed and said, "Truces are pathetic." A small smile flitted across her face as she said, "Did you really think you could get away with it?"

"With what?" asked Draco.

Gráinne let out a raspy laugh and replied, "This was undoubtedly part of your brilliant escape plan, blond mortal." She leaned forward slightly and spat. "Mermaids are never to be fooled with. You can never lie to one without getting caught."

She gestured to a maid and let out an ear piercing screech causing Draco and Hermione to flinch. It must not have sounded like a screech because, the maid nodded to her and with a bow, left the room only to bring back a small brown chest about the size of her arm. It was covered with seaweed and shells. She put it on the queen's bed.

Gráinne opened the chest and pulled out two wands. Hermione gasped and said, "Our wands!"

The queen smirked slightly and said, "These? Yes, they appear to be your wands." She began bending them slightly. "I wonder what would happen if I bent them too much."

"You can't do that!" shot Draco, his blue eyes ablaze.

"Oh? Why ever not, mortal?" asked Gráinne in a mocking voice.

Draco scowled at her and replied, "That would leave us defenseless. I thought that merpeople were fair creatures."

Hermione turned to Draco and muttered, "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"I'm trying to get our wands back." He looked at the queen who was scowling at him. "Besides, leaving us defenseless in their territory-

"Would be as good as killing us," mumbled Hermione. She shook her head and looked him in the eye. "I hope you know what you're doing because if you don't and we end up dying, I will hunt you down and kill you myself."

"You can't kill me if I'm already dead," he muttered looking back at the queen who was watching them with a suspicious look. He thought about what Hermione had said and felt himself shiver slightly. Knowing her, she probably would find a way to kill him.

Gráinne was looking at the two with a suspicious look. Mortals' talking between themselves was never a good sign. She had seen enough of them to know that they were planning something. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Placing the two wands back in the box, she gestured for her maid to come. "Give the mortals back their wands," she muttered. The blond one was rather clever, she had to admit. Turning it around so it seemed as though she was the vile one.

The maid swam over to Hermione and Draco and slowly opened the case. Draco snatched his wand from the case and immediately stuffed it into his robe. Hermione on the other hand looked at her wand then hesitantly reaching for it, she asked, "There's a catch, isn't there?"

Gráinne laughed and noted to herself that she did not even sneeze or cough afterwards. "Of course, dear mortal, there is always a catch. You can not expect me to return your lifeline without a price."

Hermione glanced sideways at Draco, who was trying his hardest not to scowl. "What do you want?"

Gráinne cleared her throat and said, "As punishment for lying to the queen and...receiving your wands, I command that the two of you be sent to..." She sat up in her bed and twirled her black hair between her fingers. Her coal eyes gleamed with treachery as she said, "Merda."

"You're joking," burst out Hermione. She realized what she had done and clamped a hand over her mouth as Draco elbowed her in the ribs.

Gráinne laughed heartily and sneezed. "I don't joke. And I definitely do not lie either."

"Merda really exists?" asked Hermione, her eyes growing wider and wider by the second. "I've read about the legend but I never thought..."

"You should think more often then," snapped the queen. She straightened out the blanket that was on top of her and said, "They'll know exactly what to do." To herself, she muttered, "And they won't refuse if they know what's good for them." She sniffed at Hermione and Draco and said, "You both will stay there until I figure out how to dispose of the two of you properly."

"You can't do that!" yelled Draco, his grey eyes flashing angrily as the guards began hauling him and Hermione away. "That's murder!"

"You're in my world now," she cackled in reply. "What I say goes." Gráinne watched with a cold look in her eyes as the two mortals were dragged out of the room. She heard someone clear their throat and turned to see one of her maids looking at her with a curious expression.

"Forgive me your highness but didn't you say that you were not going to hurt them?" The mermaid bowed her head slightly.

Gráinne sneezed two times and began fiddling with her hair. "I did say that and I won't. They don't know that, do they?"

The maid cracked a slight smile and said, "Very good, your highness."

* * *

Draco glared at Hermione as his head crashed into the ceiling of the cart they were in. As soon as they had left the queen, the guard had hauled them into a black cart with barely enough room to fit the both of them. "This is your entire fault, you know."

Hermione looked sullenly back at him and asked, "How?"

Draco rolled his eyes and muttered, "Everything's your fault."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and turned away. She looked out the window of the cart they were in and frowned. "I still can't believe that Merda exists."

"Of course it exists," scoffed Draco.

Hermione looked at him with an incredulous look and said, "I know you have no idea what I'm talking about, Malfoy." She shifted her hands, which were bound together by rope and said, "Merda is a group of creature err...the offspring of merpeople who bred with humans-

"With humans?" Draco sneered at Hermione and said, "That's not possible."

"That's why I never thought it was real but apparently it is. Anyways, they were rejected by humans and mer-folk alike because of who they were. It was mostly from the merpeople so they were said to have killed of a couple million merpeople around the world. They finally ended up here and well...somehow, they were stopped. This was way before Hogwarts was founded so it became legend. Naturally no one knows how they were stopped but they were."

Draco stared at her as though she was crazy and said, "What's the point of sending us to them then?"

Hermione's mouth quivered slightly as she replied, "I- I don't know."

Draco groaned and unintentionally banged his head against the wall behind him. "I wish I had my wand," he muttered.

"That was rather rude of them, taking them away right when we got them." Draco rolled his eyes at her and turned away.

Hermione stared at him rather perplexed by his behavior. Truth be told, she was not as worried as before. In fact, she found this place rather interesting. It was a bit like a place you could go to when you wanted to get away from everything. She couldn't understand why he hated it so much. Besides, it was a good learning experience. She shook her head and managed a small smile. She knew that she was the only person who would ever say that.

Draco puzzled her. She found that for some odd reason, he seemed rather tired off everything. She had thought that something was bothering him for a while but she was no expert on the human mind. She wished that she could do something to help him. He would never take anything from her of course but she could always try.

Hermione yelped as the cart haphazardly crashed into something causing her to crash into Draco. Draco pushed her off him roughly and scowled at her reminding her exactly why she detested him. Sighing to herself, she hoped that all this would end soon...


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you very much to everyone who reviewed! I am very sorry for the long wait. Anyways, here's the next chapter and I hope it's better than the last one which was not very good now that I reread it...**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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**By the time their carriage floated to a stop, the two of them were asleep. The merman who was at the head of the carriage shook his head at the two and snapped his fingers. A long rod appeared in his scaly hand. He cracked it against the floor one time and Draco and Hermione immediately woke up. Draco glared at Hermione who rolled her eyes and looked at the merman.

"Are we there?"

The merman turned slightly and said, "Look for yourself."

The teens peered out of the carriage wondering what was there. Draco's jaw dropped slightly and Hermione frowned. In front of them was a worn out ship that seemed ready to fall apart at any moment. The wood was rather cracked and decaying but it was a large ship.

Hermione swam slowly out of the carriage and looked at the ship with disbelief. "All the books say that they had a ship made of pure gold, not wood." Draco snorted.

The merman gave a slight smile and said, "Mortals are often inaccurate about matters that concern us folks down here." He gave the two of them a toothy grin and ushered for them to follow him.

The three of them swam over to a rickety sort of door that had slashes all over it. The merman knocked three times. On the third knock, the door opened showing a plump mermaid wearing nothing but a piece of course cloth that covered her chest. Part of her thin brown hair floated around her while the rest fell down the front of her body covering up anything else that would have been indecent to look at.

She frowned at the merman and said, "What have you got here, Jack?"

"Queen said to deliver 'em to the masters for now."

She peered at them and said, "Aren't they a bit young to start work?"

The merman laughed and replied, "They're mortals, Cass. Queen said to keep 'em here till she can figure out what to do with 'em." The thin haired mermaid frowned at him but nonetheless ushered the three of them inside.

Hermione looked around and noted that despite the fact that she was in water, the place reeked. It looked sort of like a common room yet much smaller. Chairs and tables were scattered about the room and vases filled with gillyweed and seaweed were floating around the room. There was a small wooden door at the other end of the room, which like the rest of the ship was cracked and decaying.

The mermaid cleared her throat and said, "Jack, you take him." She gestured towards Draco who narrowed his eyes at her. "I'll take her."

Jack nodded and began pulling him away from the other two. Hermione looked at him with a worried expression but he just shook his head and somehow managed to assure her that he would be ok. As soon as he left the room, Hermione looked at Cass apprehensively and said, "Wh-what are you going to do to me?"

"Not kill you, if that's what you were wondering," the mermaid muttered looking Hermione up and down. She began circling around the girl like a hawk, occasionally pulling at her hair, which was floating around wildly, or at the black robe she was wearing. Cass looked at Hermione and said, "Firstly, you'll need to remove this ugly thing." She snapped her fingers and Hermione's robes disappeared. Cass stared at the blouse Hermione was wearing with a look of wonder and said, "I don't understand you mortals. You all look the same, yet you choose to cover yourselves up as though you have something to hide."

Hermione looked at the mermaid horrified and said, "But, I do... I can't-no one can go around not wearing a shirt."

"Why?" snapped Cass.

Hermione's brown eyes widened as she replied, "I- you just- you don't go around without a shirt."

Cass rolled her eyes at the girl and replied, "Well, tough luck, girlie. This is our territory, you go by our rules." Cass snapped her fingers swiftly and Hermione's shirt disappeared altogether and was replaced by a green looking cloth similar to Cass's.

Hermione shrieked and looked at Cass who rolled her eyes. "Where is my shirt?"

"Nowhere where you can find it." Cass walked around Hermione once again and sighed as she saw the straps of Hermione's bra on her back. "More clothes, mortal? I swear, your kind is the most confusing ignorable-

"Please, let me keep it on," pleaded Hermione with a desperate look in her eyes. "I cannot go around not wearing one."

Cass noted the desperation in Hermione's voice and nodded. "I suppose I could let you have that."

She circled Hermione once more and once she was satisfied with the girl's appearance, said, "Now, what's your name?"

* * *

Draco on the other hand was not doing much better than her. Jack had pulled him into a hallway that stunk even more than the first room. He had to try very hard not to throw up. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure what would happen if he threw up. Would it float or would it sink? It made Draco even more nauseous just thinking about it. 

Jack ushered Draco into another room that did not smell as bad. "Well, take off your robe."

Draco looked at the merman and asked, "What?"

Jack shook his head and said, "Take off your robe. You've got to look presentable before the masters."

Draco scowled at Jack but nevertheless took off his robe and dropped it in a corner. "Is this presentable enough for you?"

The merman squinted at Draco and said, "Are you wearing one of those...what's it called...shirts?"

Draco gave Jack an incredulous look at replied, "Yes."

Jack laughed and said, "Well take it off. You can't go around wearing a shirt in front of the masters."

"I'm keeping my shirt on." He looked at Jack, his gray eyes never leaving the old merman's form.

Jack laughed once more at Draco and patted his belly. "If you haven't noticed, no one here wears any of those fancy things." Draco's eyes widened as he realized that Jack was right. Not one merman he had seen had been wearing a shirt save the guards who had been wearing armor.

"Well, we don't have all the time in the world."

Draco glared at the merman and began fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. He was halfway down when he was knocked to the ground and fell flat on his face. He groaned slightly and pushing his hair out of his face saw a large merman with an unseemly, huge belly swim past him.

"Watch it, fatso," he muttered, pushing himself up.

The fat merman turned to face Draco with a look of disbelief on his face. "What did you call me?"

"Nothing," murmured Draco.

Jack slapped a hand to his forehead and mumbled something about mortals.

The fat merman sneered at Jack and turned back to Draco. "Listen here, kid, I ain't short of hearing so let's get something straight. The next time I hear you say something like that, I'll crush you with my fist."

Draco took a step back as the merman's foul breath washed over his face. He nodded to the merman with a slight frown and muttered, "I'll keep that in mind, fatso."

The merman swiveled around to face Draco and letting out a roar lunged at the boy. Draco yelped and barely managed to move out of the way before the merman landed on the ground. Draco took his chance and somehow made his way behind Jack who shook his head.

"Get out of the way, Jack! I'll break his head off!" roared the merman.

"Calm down Tor," said Jack holding his hands up. "He did not mean anything by it."

"Sure as hell he didn't," yelled Tor. He fixed his coal eyes on Draco and said, "Get out here and fight like a true merman."

"He's not one of us, Tor," said Jack calmly, looking at the younger merman with an unusual amount of calmness.

"Yeah, I'm not one of you," said Draco pointing a finger at Tor.

"Leave 'im alone."

Tor glared at Draco and swiftly turned around, his stomach jiggling up and down in the process. Draco felt himself go sick at the sight. Once he was old, he would make sure that he never grew fat like Tor. He would jump off a cliff before he grew that revolting. He looked down at his own stomach and sighed, glad that he had a decent one. Quidditch helped a little in shaping his body. It wasn't over the top muscular or anything but it was not fat like Tor's.

Jack pushed Draco out from behind him and said, "Get that shirt off soon. The masters'll be expectin' us."

* * *

Hermione swam after Cass who seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Hermione was having trouble keeping up with her. It was hard to use fins because when she moved them to the right, she went left and if she moved them to the left, she went right. She could not get the hanging of moving them constantly so that she would go straight. Her hands weren't much help either. Despite the fact that they were webbed, she had a feeling that they would have been much more useful if she was not under the water. 

"Are we almost there yet?" she asked tentatively.

"Almost. Just a little further." Cass looked over her shoulder at Hermione cynically. She had to admit, the girl was rather odd to be a mortal. Her mother had told her stories of mortals when she was little. Cass shook her head as she realized that her mother must have heard the stories from the masters. The masters did not like mortals though they were partially of the same blood.

She stopped at an iron door with a rusty doorknob. She looked at Hermione and said, "From here, you go alone. The masters will know what to do with you."

Hermione swallowed and nodded to Cass as she went through the door. The first thing she saw much to her surprise was Draco Malfoy. Her eyes widened as she saw that he wasn't even wearing a shirt. Her eyes remained glued to his stomach for a few seconds before she realized that it was probably not part of the custom down here to wear shirts. He looked rather cute though. She shook her head wondering if there was something wrong with the water and hoped that she would find her shirt soon.

Draco on the other hand was much more surprised than she was. He had not expected them to make Hermione throw away her clothes but here she was wearing nothing but a cloth like that other mermaid had. He noticed that she still had on her bra, which made the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach lessen slightly. It was probably a once in a life time opportunity to see Hermione Granger wearing something like that and Draco decided to take full advantage of it.

"Going to a strip club, Granger?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and eyed him with an expression he could not identify. "I could ask you the same thing."

Draco slowly swam up to her, a sneer appearing on his face. "It isn't that odd when a guy goes around without a shirt." Hermione felt vaguely disgusted as he looked her up and down. "But when you go around wearing nothing but that," he pointed at the green cloth, "I'd say it's odd."

Hermione slapped his hand away and said, "Look, I didn't ask to have my clothes taken away."

Draco smirked at her and said, "Well, I didn't either..." His smirk widened as he asked softly, "Enjoying the view?"

Hermione looked at Draco with indignation as her cheeks became slightly pink. "You're such a conceited pig." She gave him a hard shove and he tumbled backwards laughing.

He looked at her and smirked. "Calm down, Granger. It was only a joke."

Hermione brushed her hair out of her face and muttered something that Draco did not catch.

"Any idea where we're supposed to go from here?" he asked.

She looked at him with a blank face and shrugged, drawing her arms around her tighter. Her brown eyes focused on him as she asked, "Do you think that they'll kill us?"

Draco rolled his eyes and replied, "They can't. If they do, then the ministry has every right to come down here and kill them." He looked at her pale face and wide eyes. "What? Are you scared or something?"

Hermione snapped her gaze away from him and said, "I don't want to die..."

"And here I thought that Gryffindors were brave."

Hermione growled at him in reply.

A swarm of bubbles appeared out of nowhere in front of the two of them and once they had cleared, there was a green door in front of them.

Draco got up and stared at it from next to Hermione. He gestured towards it and said, "Mudbloods first."

Hermione glared at him before tentatively reaching out for the door knob. Grasping it in her hand, she quickly turned it and flung it open. A dim light flooded her vision. She looked back at Draco who peered over her shoulder. Turning back to the front, she and Draco swam through the door, feeling a sense of dread as it disappeared once they had passed through it.

Hermione squinted, unable to see much. Draco poked her sharply on her arm and she hissed. He was pointing at something with his eyes as wide as saucers. She looked where he was pointing and felt her jaw drop.

Barely visible sitting on a worn out couch that had pieces of fluff floating around it was the figure of a creature that to Hermione looked human. But as she stared at it, she realized that the creature was completely human but had gills in its neck. The creature was wearing something that resembled muggle goggles at was completely bald. He, she assumed it was a he, was wearing a pair of shorts and wore no shirt.

Another figure was sitting next to the first creature. This one had the body of a mermaid but had no gills. In its hands was a bowl filled to the top with what looked like gillyweed. This one appeared to be a girl and was wearing no more than what Hermione was wearing. The creature's flimsy gray hair swam around her face causing her to appear distorted.

Hermione shot a look at Draco who continued to stare unabashedly at the two creatures. The first creature leaned forward slightly and cackled.

"Are you both the captives her majesty gave us?"

The mermaid swatted him on the head with a piece of gillyweed and said in a rather raspy tone, "Of course they are. Stop asking stupid questions."

The human like creature looked at her as though she was crazy and said, "I'm not crazy. You're crazy!" He cackled once more causing the mermaid to roll her eyes.

She looked back at Hermione and Draco and replied, "I don't know what her majesty wants with you and frankly I don't care." She threw a piece of gillyweed into her mouth and continued talking. "While you are here, you will serve on us as we ask you to. We are your masters for now."

"I'm not going to-" Draco was cut off by Hermione's elbow in his stomach. He looked angrily at her then back at the mermaid. "Yes, master."

The mermaid smiled eerily and said, "Good. Now, the others are out at the moment and won't be returning for a few days so I suppose you both will have a lighter work load for now."

"They work for us?" asked the human man. He clapped with glee as the mermaid looked at him with disdain.

She turned to Hermione and said, "You will fetch me more gillyweed as my current supply is almost over." Hermione raised an eyebrow and looked at the bowl which was filled to the top with gillyweed. The mermaid turned to Draco and said, "You will watch him," she gestured to the human man, "and do the odd chores that appear as always."

She gestured to Hermione and said, "You will not talk to any of the male servants while doing work and they will not talk to you. I will know if that happens." She turned to Draco and said, "Same goes for you." The mermaid got up from the couch and looked back at the human man who was wiping his goggles but failing miserably.

She looked at Draco and said, "You will wait on him." Draco looked dismayed at the human man who was examining his finger. The mermaid frowned and shook her head at him. She turned to Hermione and said, "I will show you the path that leads to the grasslands." The mermaid swiftly turned and started swimming away.

Hermione looked at the mermaid then at Draco and said, "This is your entire fault."

"You're not supposed to be talking on the job," Draco replied flashing her a large smile.

Hermione scowled at him and hurried after the mermaid.

Draco turned to the human man and with a forced smile, swam up next to him and said, "Master?"

His eyes widened as the man's hand darted out and plucked a piece of hair from Draco's head and began examining it. He laughed like a child and said, "My toe nails!"

Draco looked down at the man's feet and almost shrank back. His toe nails were about three inches long and a bright yellow color. The man handed Draco a wooden nail clipper that had been pulled out from inside the couch and went back to examining Draco's hair.

Draco scowled at the toe nails and slowly went to work. He was going to kill Granger once they got out of here.


	6. Chapter 6

Hm...I am not entirely staisfied with this chapter as I think I could have put more stuff into it. The thing is though, I don't know what else to put. Anyways, as always, I'm sorry for not updating sooner. I will be gteting very busy so I really have no idea when the next chapter will come. Thanks as always to everyone who reviewed!**  
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**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

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**

True to what the mermaid had said, Draco and Hermione had not been allowed to talk to each other. On more than one occasion they both had tried to sneak in conversations when they thought that others were not looking but Hermione was always pulled away as though she was doing something scandalous while Draco was smacked on the head and told to get back to work.

At the moment though, Draco had nothing to do. The other mermen that he worked with were all down in the main village doing something or the other. Draco had been invited to join them but he did not want to. The only thing on his mind was figuring out how to talk to Hermione.

He hid behind a curtain that was near the hall that Hermione came out of every evening to pick gillyweed for the mermaid. Galileah was her name. She was not one to be crossed.

Much to his luck, he only had to wait a few minutes before Hermione swam out of the hall. Much to Draco's annoyance, she was humming something that refused to leave Draco's head after he heard it. She had an oddly calm expression on her face that Draco was not sure that he liked.

He swiftly followed her as she maneuvered her way through the ship. Soon, she got to a small wooden door that led to the fields containing the gillyweed.

Draco raised an eyebrow as he watched her swim into the fields, still humming. There must have been at least fifty acres of gillyweed down here. The lake was not even that big from above causing Draco to surmise that the lake probably extended far under the school or that this was not even the lake at all.

Looking around to make sure that no one saw him, he swam into the fields and stayed low. He narrowed his eyes as he waited for the right moment to get her.

Hermione, oblivious to him, kept on gathering gillyweed and putting it into a quaint basket that she dangled on her arm. Draco watched as she swam closer and closer to him. Finally, he grabbed her and pulled her down, basket and all.

Hermione's eyes widened slightly as Draco clamped his hand over her mouth. Draco was surprised that she did not scream.

"Relax, Granger. It's just me."

Hermione smiled slightly and pried his hand off her mouth. She patted her hair, which was floating in ringlets around her face and said, "I'm not supposed to talk to you, Malfoy." Her voice sounded rather distant and vaguely melodious to Draco.

Draco rolled his eyes and replied, "So?"

Hermione picked up the gillyweed that had floated to the ground from her basket and said, "We could both get into trouble."

Draco grabbed her wrist and hissed, "Screw that. We need to get out of here. It's been five days already, Granger."

Hermione pulled out of his grasp and gave him a dreamy sort of look that startled Draco to no end. Her brown eyes widened with happiness as she looked at Draco, who was slightly unnerved by her manner. "I rather like it here, Malfoy."

Draco gazed at her with narrowed eyes. "What?"

Her dreamy look remained as she replied, "I like it here."

"I don't care," spat Draco, frowning slightly as Hermione remained calm. "I want to get back to the real world, Granger."

"This is real, Malfoy," she replied, a smile spreading over her face. "When will you open your eyes and see it? Down here, you can get away from everything up there." She looked down at him, the dreamy expression back on her face. "No pain...it's an escape."

An ugly look appeared on Draco's face as he grasped her shoulders hard. His grey eyes bore into hers as he hissed, "What the hell is wrong with you?" She stared right through him. As he waited for an answer, he found that for some reason, he missed seeing her face.

Draco shook his head and tightened his grip on her shoulders. "Alright then, if that's how you really want it. Just proves my point. You're nothing but a weak mudblood."

She smiled eerily at him and said, "Oh dear, why is every single pureblood I come across emotionally unstable? It's rather sad." As she said this, Draco somehow managed to catch a whiff of her breath...

"Have-have you been drinking, Granger?" Draco looked at her with a surprised expression. Her breath smelled sort of like something he had smelled in firewhisky.

Hermione turned away from him and began humming. Once she started picking more gillyweed, she answered, "Of course not. How can I drink anything? We're in water..."

Draco grabbed her arm and said, "Did you drink anything apart from water recently?"

Hermione's brown eyes became slightly glazed as she replied, "Well, there were things in the hall for us to eat and I was feeling so hungry so I decided to eat...it tasted wonderful by the way." She smiled at him and said, "I think I'll go eat some more once I'm done here."

Draco let go of her arm and rubbed his forehead. "The food's making you crazy..."

Hermione smiled at him, the dreamy look back on her face. "I'm not crazy, I'm free..." With that, she turned and went back to picking gillyweed.

Draco narrowed his eyes as he watched her go. There was definitely something funny about her. He knew without a doubt that it was that food she ate. He was glad that he hadn't touched any of the food offered to him. Draco did not want to end up like her. She was right about this place being a world where you could forget everything else but that did not mean that you could escape to it. Everyone had responsibilities and in Hermione's case, there were people who cared about her and would be angry and worried that she was missing. He had to get her back somehow, as crazy as it was.

"Wait!" he called.

Hermione turned to him elegantly and asked, "What is it now? I have work to do and I've already told you that I'm not allowed to talk to you."

"You know that that's just the food talking for you. It did something to you, Granger."

"I'm perfectly fine," she replied glibly, turning her nose up at him.

Draco's gray eyes flashed as he said, "You're not thinking logically. Why would you want to do work like this? You know that you're better than this." He looked around and whispered, "We're both better than this."

"I see that you're rather anxious to talk, but unfortunately, we could both get in great trouble as I've told you a countless number of times."

"Yes, yes, yes, I know-"

"There's a ball next week, you know." The dreamy look in her eyes intensified as she looked at him. "We can talk then if you'd like."

"Next week is a long time away, Granger and we don't have time for that."

Hermione turned away from him and replied, "You don't have time for it but I do." Looking back at him she said, "Please stop talking to me or else I will be forced to call Cass on you and it won't be a very pretty sight." Turning away from him, she said, "It is indeed a wonderful evening.

Draco watched with anger as she swam away from him. He wanted so badly to wring her neck right now but then, he would never be able to escape without her. Then again, he wasn't exactly sure that he would be able to get her help. She was apparently in very poor mental health. And that look she had given him when she told him about the ball. Draco shivered as her glazed eyes appeared in his mind.

He swam back to the ship in defeat wondering how he would be able to save her from whatever the food was doing to her. He wasn't even sure if it was food. It could have been some sort of underwater drink that somehow drugged her. Draco knew that she was one of the smartest witches at Hogwarts. He would never tell her that but she should have been able to tell that there was something wrong with the things she was eating. Even if she hadn't, Snape had always told them never to eat or drink anything that you hadn't prepared yourself.

As he swam into the hall reserved for the merman, he wrinkled his nose with disgust as the heavy scent of alcohol washed over him. He watched with contempt as the others flailed into the hall, crashing into the walls on the process.

One of them ambled over towards Draco, jeering at him and said, "Eh...look it's the runt..." He shoved a bottle of liquor into Draco's face and asked, "This stuff...hiccup...too strong for you?"

Draco shoved the merman over and muttered, "I'd say." He swam over to one of the chairs that were not taken and sat down, observing the others. Many of them were plain drunk like the one Draco had shoved. He smiled despite the situation. It must have been an extremely strong drink to get someone drunk in water.

A few of the others, huddled together seemed as though they were on muggle drugs. Yes, Draco Malfoy knew what muggle drugs were. No, he did not do them because he found them a waste of time. What those muggle drugs did, potions could do even better.

Draco frowned slightly. A lot of them had that dreamy sort of expression Hermione had on her face when he talked to her. It could have merely been a coincidence but Draco did not believe in coincidences. That being said, he quietly swam up to the mermen and asked in a quiet voice, "What are you doing?"

They opened up slightly to show Draco that they were huddled around a rust colored bottle that was fizzing slightly. Draco watched disgustedly as they passed the bottle around, taking huge swigs of it. One of the mermen held it out to him and when Draco refused, he said, "You really should drink this. It's wonderful stuff."

Draco pushed the bottle away and muttered, "I'm fine."

The merman pushed the bottle back towards Draco and said, "Have some, it's wonderful..."

Draco leaned back and frowned at the merman. "I said I don't want any."

Another one of the mermen grabbed the bottle away from his comrade and shoved it into Draco's mouth. Draco almost gagged as he punched the bottle away. "What the hell is wrong with you? I don't want any."

The one who had shoved it into his mouth looked at him with a far off expression. "We were supposed to give it to you before today..."

"Now it's all ruined," complained the first merman as he swam off. Most of the other mermen left complaining as well.

Draco looked at the remaining merman with a confused expression. He looked back and grabbed the bottle. "What is this stuff?"

The merman looked away with a dreamy expression and replied, "Concoction of Reverie..."

Draco snorted at the name and asked cautiously, "What does it do?"

"It's normally just a drink used to put the drinker out of misery," replied the merman monotonously. Draco sneered as the merman giggled slightly. "This one's drugged though."

Draco dropped the bottle, which floated slowly to the floor. He raised an eyebrow and looked around. Most of the other mermen were asleep for some reason. Probably too much to drink. He looked back at the merman he was talking to and asked, "A drugged drink, huh?" He leaned forward and asked, "What does the drug do?"

The merman sighed and giggled once again, causing Draco to feel slightly uncomfortable. "It makes you feel happy. No pain at all..."

Draco edged his chair away slightly as a dreamy expression appeared on the merman's face. It mirrored the one that he had seen on Hermione's face almost exactly.

"What drug?" he asked urgently.

The merman leaned back on the chair he had sat down on and mumbled, "Astorath root..." His head dropped down as he fell unconscious.

As Draco saw this, he was glad that he had not swallowed any of it when it had been pushed into his mouth. Judging by the how much the others had been drinking, if Draco had taken as much as they did, he would have been dead by now from an overdose. He concluded that the merfolk must have developed some type or resistance towards it. And about Granger, well, she was lucky that she only took a little.

Draco racked his brain for any information he could remember about the root. It was an illegal herb up there and as far as he knew, it only grew in extremely cold places. The lake must be very cold if they could find it down here. Then he remembered something.

Astorath root was used in cases of extreme pain. You needed special permission from the ministry to use it otherwise it was completely illegal for any sort of use. Over the summer, his mother had fallen down a flight of stairs and Draco had to take her to St. Mungo's. She had to have an operation done on her for some odd reason that Draco could not recall. He had to wait an excruciatingly long time for her surgery to finish so he decided to go for a walk.

He was on the fourth floor when he was nearly knocked over by an old mediwitch followed by two others levitating a man who had turned blue and was bleeding profusely from both ears. They were being followed by a screaming woman and another mediwitch who was doing her best to calm her down. Draco had stopped in his tracks and stared at them as they passed by him. He distinctly remembered the mediwitch telling the screaming lady, "He's been give a sedative...astorath root. It'll make him feel no pain for about five hours. We should have him mostly fixed up by then..." Before he could hear any more, Draco had walked out of the room not wanting to stay for any longer than he could.

A thought suddenly occurred to Draco. The mermen told him that they should have already given it to Draco. That meant that Hermione must have been eating or drinking this stuff for a while. The mermaids must have cajoled her into having it and since it's a drug, she must have developed some sort of dependency on it. And if it wore off every five hours, that meant, Draco would have to be very careful.

He fully planned on going to the ball. There was no way anyone would stop him. After all, it was the only time he would have to talk to her. He would have to keep her with him until the astorath wore off. He had never seen the effects first hand so he had no idea what to expect.

This place was proving to be rather friendly indeed. Getting whacked on the head by mermen, having mermaids shout at you, getting force fed, and the best part, getting drugged. It almost made Draco not want to leave. Almost.


End file.
